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"Poland seeks to help eastern Europe cut its reliance on natural gas from Russia’s OAO Gazprom by allowing its neighbors to use its pipelines and a sea terminal to access alternative supplies.

Poland for the first time got more gas from western Europe than from Gazprom for two days this month, proving that it can already diversify its own supplies, Jan Chadam, chief executive officer of state-owned Gaz-System SA, said Monday in an interview. New infrastructure by 2018 will allow the Warsaw-based pipeline operator to transport gas to a region that uses almost a quarter of the European Union’s total, he said.

Europe is seeking to diversify gas supplies away from Russia after they became more expensive than traded gas in western Europe. Flows from the east were threatened for a third winter since 2006 because of the conflict in Ukraine, which transports about 40 percent of Gazprom’s exports to Europe. While Poland’s coal reserves make it one of Europe’s smallest gas users, it is the only country to border both Ukraine and Germany, two of the region’s biggest consumers."

"Russian stocks rallied the most in the world and the ruble strengthened as the European Central Bank’s plan to expand stimulus emboldened investors to take on more risk.

The dollar-based RTS Index rose 4.5 percent, while the Micex Index (INDEXCF) extended the world’s biggest gain this year. Investors who avoided Russian assets in 2014 because of the ruble’s slide are returning as oil shows signs of stabilizing near $50 a barrel and price swings in the ruble subside. The currency climbed the most since Jan. 8 and bonds rose, sending yields to a five-week low.

The ECB’s plan to boost stimulus to 60 billion euros ($69 billion) a month is leading to a hunt for bigger returns, raising the appeal of Russia, where corporate earnings as a proportion of stock prices are about 40 percent more than emerging markets as a whole. Investors are demanding higher returns for taking on the risk that the world’s largest energy exporter will lose its investment-grade credit rating amid an oil-price slump and sanctions over the Ukraine conflict."

"Solar power is winning over Egypt to the United Arab Emirates even as lower oil costs are hurting the renewable energy industry.

Egypt this week announced plans for 4,300 megawatts of solar and wind power over the next three years, while Dubai’s government-owned utility awarded a $330 million contract to build a 200-megawatt solar plant to a group led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power International. Jordan extended bids for four solar plants until Feb. 20 and Nigeria said it expects 20 percent of its 2020 power capacity will come from renewables.

The WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index of 105 clean-energy companies has dropped almost 20 percent since July 3 as Brent crude futures tumbled 55 percent. By comparison, solar panels are selling for about 70 cents a watt, down from more than $2 in 2010."

"Saudi Arabian Oil Co. plans to start natural gas production at a field near Jordan next year as the world’s biggest crude exporter is “investing big in gas,” Chief Executive Officer Khalid Al-Falih said.

“Results are extremely encouraging” at the field in northern Saudi Arabia, Al-Falih said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday. The state-owned producer, known as Aramco, is exploring for gas and boosting refining capacity to free more crude for export, he said.

Middle Eastern oil producers are expanding gas exploration to meet demand for fuel in power plants and feedstock to make chemicals. Oil has dropped 55 percent in the past year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia resisted production cuts and growth in U.S. shale oil output surged to a three-decade high."

"Gulf stock markets were mixed on Thursday, coming under pressure from some negative earnings reports but supported by stronger oil, while Egypt established a clear break of major technical resistance.

Brent crude oil gained more than 2 percent and rose above $50 per barrel on Thursday. Global equities were also strong as the European Central Bank prepared to announce a new quantitative easing program.

Saudi Arabia's index edged up 0.3 percent as petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries gained 1.5 percent and a number of other stocks in the sector also rose."

"The name Nakheel still prompts a raised eyebrow from many investors in Dubai who watched the company’s dramatic fall from grace during the Dubai World crisis in 2009.

Back during the boom, the company formed one of a triumvirate of semi-state owned Dubai master developers along with Emaar and Dubai Properties Group, intent on building the city’s biggest mega-schemes.

Nakheel has been the author of some of Dubai’s most ambitious schemes. Not just the Palm Jumeirah, but two more palm tree-shaped islands at Jebel Ali and Deira. Not just the vast exotic themed Ibn Battuta shopping mall or Chinese themed Dragon Mart, but The World, a vast collection of islands shaped like a map."

"Top Gun was playing in the cinemas, Madonna was in the pop charts with Papa Don’t Preach and fashion was all about big perms and even bigger shoulder pads.

The year was 1986 and the big news was all about the economy where a collapse in oil prices eventually led to a consumer spending boom in the West.

Now, 29 years later, with the price of oil slumping 50 per cent in the past six months, the most since the 2008 financial crisis, experts are predicting a similar oil-fuelled property boom in non-oil producing countries – but a relative slowdown here."

"Emaar Malls Group, the retail unit of Emaar Properties, posted a 5 per cent increase in fourth-quarter net profit to Dh412 million last year from Dh394m, led by an increase in traffic to its flagship The Dubai Mall, the firm said.

For 2014, the Dubai-listed firm posted a 23 per cent increase in net profit to Dh1.35 billion from Dh1.1bn a year earlier. Revenue was up 13 per cent at Dh2.7bn compared with Dh2.4bn reached in 2013.

Revenue from The Dubail Mall accounted for 82 per cent of the total, which came in at Dh2.2bn, up by 12 per cent from 2013."

"The political stability of the Arab world needs a long-term plan to increase economic stability and move away from dependence on oil as the major economic driver, while also addressing the region’s dangerously high unemployment, particularly among young people.

The proposed Arab Stabilisation Plan, ASP, would build a regional framework to promote infrastructure investment and create jobs. Taking its inspiration from the US-led Marshal Plan to rebuild post-war Europe, it would prioritise infrastructure projects on a national level and boost economic growth in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, and Tunisia.

It would be important that the investment would come mainly from within the Arab world such as the Gulf countries, and the private sector, and not rely on external sources which lack the long-term will and commitment to make this work."

"Ukraine said it will approach holders of its sovereign bonds to try to negotiate more favorable borrowing terms after finalizing a proposed loan package with the International Monetary Fund.

“We’ll reach out to our sovereign creditors and talk to them about their vision, our vision, how we can work together to improve the debt sustainability in the medium-term,” Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said today in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Ukrainian authorities today requested a four-year financial aid package that would ease the economic pressures that have pushed the former Soviet republic to the brink of default. An IMF staff mission is in Kiev, and Jaresko said she hopes the loan deal is reached by the end of this month."

"U.S. shale drillers won’t scale back output quickly enough for OPEC to avoid production cuts this year, according to a quarterly poll of Bloomberg subscribers.

Forty-nine percent of analysts, traders and investors surveyed said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will have to lower its production target this year, while 34 percent said shale drillers will lower output in time. Seventeen percent weren’t sure.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents who said OPEC will cut its production target expect it to happen in the second half of the year, compared to 34 percent who see it happening before the end of June. The poll of 481 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers was conducted Jan. 14-15 by Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points."

"Oil prices will rebound rather than extend their decline to as low as $20 a barrel because a collapse since June isn’t merited by global supply and demand, OPEC’s Secretary-General said.

Producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should be first to reduce their output amid a surplus that’s pushed crude below $50 a barrel, Abdalla El-Badri said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. Iraq, OPEC’s fastest-growing supplier, said it needs to boost output to compensate for revenues eroded by the price slump.

“The price will not go to $20 or $25, I think the price will stay at where we are now,” El-Badri said. “We have seen this before -- prices coming down very fast and go up very slow. But prices will rebound.”"